A step father hid behind the façade of a respectable religious man to subject his children to a “sinister” regime of physical and psychological terror that was kept secret for 20 years.

William Sangster's stepdaughter Tracey Edwards spoke publicly for the first time of her suffering at the hands of the “evil bully”, who justified his abuse with passages from the Bible, and expressed her relief as he was jailed.

Sangster, 53, pleaded guilty to two counts of child cruelty against Tracey and her brother Dale Edwards carried out at their Norwich home and dating back to the early 1980s when he met their now estranged mother.

Norwich Crown Court yesterday heard how he carried out a reign of terror for more than five years including a series of bizarre and brutal punishments accompanied by forcing the two youngsters to recite Bible verses which he claimed justified their ordeal.

Will Carter, prosecuting, said Sangster, a Jehovah's Witness, now of The Maples, Dundee, Scotland, would make them stand arms outstretched with weights in their hands for long lengths of time and beat them with a heavy knife sharpener if they faltered.

The 20-stone man flushed Dale's head down the toilet, thumped him round the head and in the face so hard his nose bled, and forced him to stay in his room at their house in Jamieson Place for up to 24 hours without food.

Dale was not even allowed out to go to the toilet during these ordeals and had to use a plant pot. He also had to wear hot clothing in summer and was made to walk five miles to school.

Sangster made both the children, aged 11 and 12 at the start of his regime, do the washing up within a certain time and for every minute they went over the limit he would give them a beating. He also forced them to eat hot, spicy food without any drinks.

The natural child that Sangster and the children's mother had together was not subjected to any of the suffering meted out to the two stepchildren, the court heard.

Mr Carter said: “One of the least pleasant aspects of this case was the physical combined with the emotional abuse.”

Michael Clare, mitigating, said that Sangster was in bad health and suffered conditions including arthritis and gout. He was also a full time carer for his wife who had recently had a heart attack.

He said that Sangster had decided to turn his life around in 1980 and turned to religion.

“He has been zealous indeed, some might say over zealous.”

Judge Paul Downes sent him to jail for three months, the limit recommended by a medical report.

He said: “What you did to these children was insidious and sinister… you were a big man and they were very little children and you were in a position of trust to look after them.”

As Sangster was sent to jail Tracey wept and her natural father Dave Edwards said “yes”.

Afterwards Mr Edwards said Sangster had been “lucky” to get the three-month sentence but that he was pleased he had been imprisoned for putting his daughter through such an ordeal.

Tracey, now 37, said: “It's just a relief and it means I can now look forward. There wasn't one thing that he did that stood out, it was all terrible. I don't know how a man could do that to children.”

Step-dad was an evil bully

A step father hid behind the façade of a respectable religious man to subject his children to a “sinister” regime of physical and psychological terror that was kept secret for 20 years.

William Sangster's stepdaughter Tracey Edwards spoke publicly for the first time of her suffering at the hands of the “evil bully”, who justified his abuse with passages from the Bible, and expressed her relief as he was jailed.

Sangster, 53, pleaded guilty to two counts of child cruelty against Tracey and her brother Dale Edwards carried out at their Norwich home and dating back to the early 1980s when he met their now estranged mother.

Norwich Crown Court yesterday heard how he carried out a reign of terror for more than five years including a series of bizarre and brutal punishments accompanied by forcing the two youngsters to recite Bible verses which he claimed justified their ordeal.

Will Carter, prosecuting, said Sangster, a Jehovah's Witness, now of The Maples, Dundee, Scotland, would make them stand arms outstretched with weights in their hands for long lengths of time and beat them with a heavy knife sharpener if they faltered.

The 20-stone man flushed Dale's head down the toilet, thumped him round the head and in the face so hard his nose bled, and forced him to stay in his room at their house in Jamieson Place for up to 24 hours without food.

Dale was not even allowed out to go to the toilet during these ordeals and had to use a plant pot. He also had to wear hot clothing in summer and was made to walk five miles to school.

Sangster made both the children, aged 11 and 12 at the start of his regime, do the washing up within a certain time and for every minute they went over the limit he would give them a beating. He also forced them to eat hot, spicy food without any drinks.

During one incident he blamed them for putting the wrong coins in the electricity meter, calling them back from their grandmother's. Neither child knew what they were meant to have done but he beat Dale to make him admit it then beat him more for supposedly lying.

But he always stopped at 40, claiming that was the maximum the Bible allowed.

The natural child that Sangster and the children's mother had together was not subjected to any of the suffering meted out to the two stepchildren, the court heard.

Mr Carter said: “One of the least pleasant aspects of this case was the physical combined with the emotional abuse.”

Michael Clare, mitigating, said that Sangster was in bad health and suffered conditions including arthritis and gout. He was also a full time carer for his wife who had recently had a heart attack.

He said that Sangster had decided to turn his life around in 1980 and turned to religion.

“He has been zealous indeed, some might say over zealous.”

Judge Paul Downes sent him to jail for three months, the limit recommended by a medical report.

He said: “What you did to these children was insidious and sinister… you were a big man and they were very little children and you were in a position of trust to look after them.

“It varied from extreme physical abuse… to a sinister controlling force. You must have made their lives very miserable.”

As Sangster was sent to jail Tracey wept and her natural father Dave Edwards said “yes”.

Afterwards Mr Edwards said Sangster had been “lucky” to get the three-month sentence but that he was pleased he had been imprisoned for putting his daughter through such an ordeal.

“He was a bully, a pure evil bully whose whole life was nothing but lies. I didn't know anything about any of it obviously because he created this fear within them but then things started coming out and I knew Dale and Tracey had to do something about it so they could move on with their lives.

“I felt absolutely awful when I found out what had been going on. He broke Dale's nose three times and his nose bleed so much that it went right through the pillow and to the mattress and he just left him there.”

Tracey, now 37, said: “It's just a relief and it means I can now look forward. There wasn't one thing that he did that stood out, it was all terrible. I don't know how a man could do that to children.”